response 126 of 165:

Jun 1 17:46 UTC 2002

  My money's on the latter..

response 128 of 165:

Jun 1 22:51 UTC 2002

Me too...even if they don't *both* go out of business, I really think
there's probably only room for *one* satellite radio company in the market. 
It's sort of another VHS vs. Beta fight.  I'd feel better about it if there
were some kind of standard, but these are both proprietary systems, so
you're locking yourself in to one service or the other when you buy a radio.

Personally, if I listened to the talk channels I'd miss hearing local news. 
And if I want to listen to a specific type of music, I have an MP3-CD
player.

response 130 of 165:

Jun 2 19:20 UTC 2002

I think if they fail, it will be because everyone expects them to fail, and
we're all waiting for all our neighbors to buy them first.  

response 132 of 165:

Jun 3 20:32 UTC 2002

Listening to music on a cell-phone would be the utter triumph of low-fi.

response 134 of 165:

Jun 3 23:27 UTC 2002

Two (or is it three?) words:  "Headphone jack".

response 136 of 165:

Jun 4 08:00 UTC 2002

Exactly. 

response 138 of 165:

Jun 5 13:37 UTC 2002

USA Today has an overview article on the struggles between the 
music business and music fans.    File sharing only gets a small 
piece of the story.
 
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-06-05-cover-music-industry.htm

response 140 of 165:

Jun 8 16:54 UTC 2002

Via Slashdot:
http://www.newyorkmag.com/page.cfm?page_id=6099
 
The essay by Michael Wolff argues that the music business of the future
is going to look a lot more like the book business -- much less 
significant to the mass culture, and much, much less profitable.
He suggests that rock and roll, which powered the growth of the 
music biz in the 1960s and 1970s, is spent as a cultural force, 
with nothing of equal impact to replace it.

He also sees two ways that the Internet has sandbagged the industry:
besides the file sharing and copying issue, there is the problem that
the Internet has encouraged tastes to splinter into thousands of 
musical subcategories.  This makes it much harder for the major music 
corporations to come up with the megahits which power their profits;
it also means industry costs are way out line with the sales that 
can be expected for most discs, and they need to be drastically pruned.
Translation: lots and lots of layoffs in the music business.

In talking to music business people, Wolff reports that a grim fatalism 
is setting in.

Recommended essay.

response 142 of 165:

Jun 9 05:28 UTC 2002

found it!  The New York Magazine article referred to a Wall Street Journal
item; usually the WSJ stuff is not freely available, but this story
was made available as a cautionary tale for children...  :)
 
http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/0502_mdia.htm

                  MCA Records spent about two
                  years preparing Carly
                  Hennessy for pop stardom,
                  and about $2.2 million to
                  make and market the
                  18-year-old singer's first pop
                  album, "Ultimate High."

                  But since "Ultimate High" was
                  released in stores nationwide
                  a few months ago, it has sold
                  only 378 copies-amounting to
                  about $4,900 at its suggested
                  retail price. ...

Wonderful story!

response 144 of 165:

Jun 9 14:23 UTC 2002

#142 brings a tear to my eye.  I'm proud of the American public.

response 146 of 165:

Jun 9 17:14 UTC 2002

Great interview/article about David Bowie in today's NYT:
"The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music
will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it.
I see absolutely no point in pretending that it's not going to happen. I'm
fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10
years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing."

 "Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity," he
added. "So it's like, just take advantage of these last few years because none
of this is ever going to happen again. You'd better be prepared for doing a
lot of touring because that's really the only unique situation that's going
to be left. It's terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn't matter
if you think it's exciting or not; it's what's going to happen."


http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/arts/music/09PARE.html?todaysheadlines

Sounds like (as usual) Bowie has been thinking a few years ahead of most
people in the music business.

response 148 of 165:

Jun 9 22:04 UTC 2002

Carly Hennessy was given as an example in one of the articles Ken posted
yesterday.